Akai-mi Coffee part2

Are you a gourmet?  Are you a coffee geek?  
If so, visit Akai-mi coffee in Osaka.

The second purchase from Akai-mi coffee!  It has been less than a month since my first visit, but it was long enough to crave for well developed wonderful flavor.  

The owner of Akai-mi coffee seems a man of few words: he smiles and waits for your first question about coffee.  Once the question breaks his silence, you will be amazed by his plentiful/colorful words based on broad knowledge and insights.  He enjoys beauty of the specialty coffee beans, such as COE nominated and micro-farms, as many coffee geeks do, but does not focus on them as a roaster.  Coffee roasting is the technique to enhance and to bring out uniqueness/character/potential hidden inside of green beans as well as to balance between a roasting machine and beans.  He believes so.  Each roaster has a range of roasting degrees, and so as beans.  .   

Japan has one of unique country where "the world's highest" quality green beans gather.  The fact helps Japanese roaster in terms of roasting: the highest quality beans often     beans gather The owner, of Akai-mi coffee seems a man of few words, but has  and a roaster himself, of Akai-mi coffee is a little shy, a mister type, but has full of passion over the coffee world.There are a lot of different type of coffee roaster here in this country as the others do.  

Akai-mi Blend

The first encounter of Akai-mi coffee!

Why don’t we start with the house blend has their name?

【Impression】

Medium body, light texture, mild flavor.  Light lemony acidity with apricot like sweetness, nutty and chocolaty flavor, with moderate and short aftertaste.  Well balanced as well as harmonized round flavor, mellow but airy touch coffee fits any time of a day/yr.

Based on Columbia Andes condor, Akai-mi blend has clear flavor with nutty sweetness and depth added by other beans. 

  Akai-mi coffee hits the center.  This is the coffee roaster to stop my drifting in the pool of coffee roasters!  “Coffee beans are fresh fruits which has own unique flavors”, said the owner.  For him, roasting is the process to enhance and to bring out each uniqueness and character of beans derive from environments they have been surrounded.  Akai-mi coffee carries so called specialty beans but his focus seems not estates but region or countries. 

  Single/straight beans are selected from countries where sound quite familiar as core coffee production countries, such as Tanzania, El Salvador.             

 It’s always the best pleasure to meet people have enthusiasm and commitment in coffee world, and more than pleasure to talk /listen to their story about coffee.  The owner of Akai-mi coffee appears quiet guy with tender smile; however, once he breaks the ice, his words start weaving together his knowledge and enthusiasm to show the world of “Akai-mi Coffee”.  Balance of flavor, created by roasting and beans, hits the center together with the owner’s talk.  

Beans: Akai-mi Blend

Roaster: Akai-mi Coffee

Roasting Degree: Medium

Akai-mi Coffee

AKAI-MI, menans "read cherry" in Japanese,  coffee is a neighborhood coffee roaster, forcuses on roasting, in Osaka.

This roastery is located in the middle of residential area, hidden and stood quietly, roasting and retailing coffee beans without café space.

Akai-mi coffee has gaining its popularity by word-of-mouth among coffee lovers, but there is no web-site or a internet shop.

Although I have known this shop for a long time, Akai-mi coffee became the fairyland where impossible to reach.

After a year, this was the first time I was honored to leave the very first step to my dream coffee roaster, which made me the happiest than ever.

Rich aroma of coffee welcomes you together with beautiful antique coffee cups, plates from Scandinavia.  There is DIEDRICH sitting quietly behind the counter, which definitely pulls your attention if you are coffee maniac.   

The owner of this roastery is rather quiet but he will talk once coffee talk begins.

Mondul Estate

Beans: Tanzania AA Mondul
Roasting degree: City
Roaster: Coffee-ya Hot
Area of production: Mondul Estate, Arusha, Tanzania
Grade: AA
Screen: 17 up
Altitude: 1650m～1840m
Defects: N/A
Processing: Washed, Sun-dry
Variety: BOURBON, KENT
Yr of cultivation: 2009/2010

【Comments】
Full body, silky texture, aromatic and gentle aftertaste.  Well established and stimulating aroma, fully matured flavor of sweetness and bitterness.  Orange like acidity mildly slips out from dark-cacao like bitterness, chocolaty sweetness covers around to harmonize flavor.  Cool and refreshing but fits better to winter, or after dinner.  This cup reminds me of Armagnac, aromatic, fruity, pearly and well matured taste of French brandy…
Good for espresso lover, taste better with milk and a piece of chocolate, or something sweet with strong and impressive character in flavor.

【Notes】Mondul Estate is located in Arusha and Moshi Region, the largest coffee producer of Tanzania, at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro
Established in 1931 by Italian owner Count Vittorio Davico, Mondule estate has been successfully producing finest Arabia coffee beans, which has proved by winning awards in several cupping competitions such as Tanzania coffee Association Quality Awards in 98/99 and 00/01 seasons.  Blessed with clean spring water from the Monduli Forest Reserve, volcanic soil of Mt. Kilimanjaro with leaf soil and relatively stable climate, Mondul Estate produces about 1500kg/ha of higher quality beans with grading average percentage of AA 30% and AB 60%. 
Introducing highly systemized production skills, the estate is divided into 4 areas, based on cut-back, and rotates production cycle among them to enable to maintain high and sustainable quality/quantity of 2 varieties as shade grown: Kent and BOURBON. 

South Minas Coopfam

Beans: South Minas Coopfam

Roasting degree: Full-city

Roaster: Coffee-ya Hot

Area of production: Poco Fundo, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Grade:N Y2/3

Screen: 1 4 up

Altitude: 7 00～ 1 ,200m

Defects: N/A

Processing: Natural, Machine/Sun-dry

Variety: Catuai, Mundo Novo

Yr of cultivation: 2009/2010.

FLO Fairtrade, AAO, Rain Forest Alliance certified

【Impression】
Medium to heavy body, clear aroma.  Light fine acidity of citrus, soothing but rich bitterness, dark caramel like sweetness as aftertaste.  Layers of bitterness and sweetness with lemony flavor on top.  Well-balanced, typical "BRAZILIAN" coffee flavor, but may good for espresso. 

【Notes】
Poco Fundo is a small village, about inhabitant of 18,000, located in a mountainous area of Minus Gerais where is one of original location of Brazilian coffee cultivation, blessed with beautiful woods and weather conditions.

COOPFAM is originally organized in 1991by small scale farmers of Poco Fundo to promote cooperation between them and to improve their own quality of life/products.   This organization produces about 12,000 bags per yr from 300,000 plants of Arabica trees.  Their products achieved the first prize in Brazilian Fair Trade Coffee Cupping cometition of 2008, and which has added higher value to their coffee beans ever since.

Originally, this cooperative is formed from collective desire of small sized farmers to improve the living standard of farmers and to reduce poverty and emigration, and now they are succeeded not only to achieve their first objectives but also to increase the productivity as well as to sustain the quality of family-oriented agriculture in the region.

San Vicente Farm

Beans: Finca San Vicente (San Vicente Farm)

Roasting Level: city

Roaster: Cafe Hot (Coffee-ya Hot)

Area of Production: Huehuetenango, Guatemala

Grade: SHB

Altitude: 1,300m ～ 1600m

Processing: Fully-washed, 100% Sun-dry

Variety: Catuai, Caturra

Yr of cultivation: 2009

Flavor Balance: 

 RICHNESS:  4 

 ACIDITY: 3 (Medium)

 FLAVOR:  4

【Impression】
Smooth, siky texture.  Chiffon like thin, soft layer of bitterness and sweetness gradually wraps a tongue.  Creamy and mild, medium body, sweet flavor like roasted chestnuts, clear aftertaste with a tip of bitterness.  Prefer to blew with a paper fillter, slowly pour 85 celsius degrees water over medium ground beans.  Texture of coffee become more silky.

【Note】
San Vicente estate is located in the Cuchumatanes mountain range of Huehuetenango, located about 45KM North-East of matagalpa city.  This micro estate provides about 180t of shade-grown & handpicked beans annually, including 20t of organically grown although they are not yet certified.   This estate are blessed with some special climactic conditions with higher humidity, topographically rugged, very steep, has clay soils.

Hot Blend

Beans: Hot Blend
 Blend of Brazil, columbia, ethiopia, guatemara
Roaster: Coffee-ya Hot

【Impression】
Medium to Full body with deep, creamy texture.
Mild but darker in flavor with sweetness of vanilla and light acidity and bitterness.  Floral arma and flavor of hibiscus and lemonglass with fruity flavor, sweetness, of pears.

【Note】

Roasting grade information is not provided but I assume City & fully city mix, high percentage of City.  It is said “100% specialty coffee beans”, but how we know?  Core of blend coffee is harmony.  Certainly, quality of beans matters, affects, taste of coffee, but balance and harmony of beans brings higher satisfaction, or maybe the other way, of blend coffee followed by roasting technique/skills.